Keed musical instbument



(the reed or reeds.

YUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES AUSTIN, OF CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

REED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 7,317, dated April 30, 1850.

T o all whom t may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES AUSTIN, ofConcord, in the county of Merrimack and State of New Hampshire, haveinvented a new and useful improvement in reed musical instruments suchas melodeons, seiaphins, or others of like character, in which asounding-board is employed; and I do hereby declare that the same isfully de scribed and represented in the following specification andaccompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 1 denotes a top view of my improvedsounding bo-ard and box, having the reeds applied directly to it, t-hesaid figure representing the series of valve chambers and valves, whichare hinged to the rear edge of the upper surface of the sounding board,as turned back, for the purpose of uncovering and exhibiting the reeds.Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the above, the valve chamber in thisfigure being represented as turned down upon, and over the soundingboard, and as covering Fig. 3 is a vertical and longitudinal section ofthe sounding box. Fig. 4 is a cross section of a few of the valvechambers, their reeds and the part of the sounding board to which thereeds are directly applied.

The most important feature in my improved melodeon or reed instrument,consists in entirely dispensing with any metallic frame for supportingthe reed, and the opening or passage within which it vibrates; the reedopening, by my improvement, being made directly through the woodensounding board, and not in a frame or plate of brass or metal fastenedthereto, in the usual manner. The reed is fastened or screwed directlyto the wooden sounding board, and extends within and over the opening.By dispensing with the metal frame, heretofore arranged for sustainingthe reed and its air passage, I am not only able to very much cheapenthe cost of manufacturing an instrument, but I edect a very remarkableand highly important improvement in its tone; for I have discovered thatwhen any metallic article is placed on a sounding board, the tone willbe materially and injuriously affected by it; the probable cause of suchinjurious action being owing either to the difficulty of conductingsound through the metal, or from an influence which it exerts on thesounding board to prevent its proper vibration.

A nother very material improvement o1` addition to the reed consists inproviding it with a sounding board and box, the latter 'producing on thesound emanating from the reed an effect very like that which is exertedon the strings of a violin or violoncello by the box over which they maybe strained. The upper part of this box in the reed instrument, is itssounding board, the bottom of the box being a thin board made like thesounding board; the air which is blown upon the reed being condensed inthe box, and suffered to low between the sounding board and the bottomof the box, its pressure of condensed state contributing, verymaterially, toward an improvement of the tone.

In Figs. l and 2, A represents the sounding board, or top board of aclose box or chamber B, the air from the bellows being admitted into thebox, through a series of openings a, a, a, &c. formed through the frontpart of its bottom board The reed openings 0, c, c, &c. are rectangularapertures cut directly through the sounding board, the reeds d, (Z, (Z,&c. being respectively applied to such openings, and confined to thesounding board by screws e, e, e, &c.

A rectangular frame D, or series of valve chambers f, f', &c., is hingedto the rear edge of the sounding board by a tight hinge or piece ofleather, or other suitable substance g, the lower part of this frame, or

that partof it, which rests directly on the sounding board, and betweenand around each of the reeds, being cushioned with leather, as seen at7L, h, h, in order to prevent a circulation of air from one valve`placed; it being held down on, or against its seat, by a spring Z, andlifted by the key lever connected with it, in any proper manner.

What I claim as my invention or improvement in reed instruments, madeWith a sounding board, is,

To make the reed opening c, directly throughA the Wooden sounding board,in combination with the applying of the reed directly to the same, andfastening it to the sounding board; instead of using any metallic framefor the opening and reed, as has been the customary method of making andconstructing such instruments; my sald invention, by dispensing With'thesaid metal frame, not only producing a remarkable improvement in thetone, but a great saving in the cost of construction of an instrument.

In testimony whereof I have hereto set my signature, this twelfth day ofFebruary,

CHARLES AUSTIN. Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, CALEB EDDY.

